


we were in the gold room where everyone finally gets what they want

by micahgranados



Category: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, domestic malina!!!!!!, i am the leader of malina nation, i love them so so much, this is a soft little fic after the war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:21:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26300107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/micahgranados/pseuds/micahgranados
Summary: it was summer. the air was thick and heaving with the scent of apple blossoms that bloomed in the nearby orchard. sunlight bloomed in the orphanage along with it; trailing along the walls and spilling onto the floor. if you were quick enough, you could catch the girl by a window, stretching out her fingers in it, as if she was trying to catch it in her palm.
Relationships: Mal Oretsev/Alina Starkov
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	we were in the gold room where everyone finally gets what they want

**Author's Note:**

> hello!!! so this takes place after the ruin and rising epilogue, maybe a year or so after? it’s mal and alina living at the orphanage with the children and i am just so soft for the ending so i decided to write an epilogue epilogue so here we are :)

it was summer. the air was thick and heaving with the scent of apple blossoms that bloomed in the nearby orchard. sunlight bloomed in the orphanage along with it; trailing along the walls and spilling onto the floor. if you were quick enough, you could catch the girl by a window, stretching out her fingers in it, as if she was trying to catch it in her palm.

one afternoon, it was so unbearably hot the boy and girl decided to stop lessons for the day. they took the children down to the nearby lake. its banks were bursting with honeysuckle and nasturtium, so the girl stayed and sat on the grass with the children who didn’t want to get wet. there, she wove flower crowns with her slender fingers, and pretended the golds and ambers of the petals were droplets of light.

the boy was good with children: he always had been. he tackled them and splashed them and laughed as he was pelted with small beads of water from the revengeful youth. at one point, he took his top off, and a silence rippled throughout the children as he revealed his back. 

the girl was tenderly used to the tattoo that sprawled across his scarred skin, but her heart still gave a sharp twist. the battle may be won, but mourning was one thing that she never stopped doing. she made sure she petted all the tabby cats that prowled along the markets, and always waited a few extra minutes before snuffing out the candles. the boy taught the young girls how to fight with wooden swords and showed the kids how to track rabbits. they both took such good care of any confused old woman that may find herself staying for a few nights: made sure they were warm enough and had enough tea to drink. little acts to remember those they had lost.

almost regretful, the boy had looked to the girl, lying down amongst the the petals, her face bathed in sunlight as it  _ should be, _ and she nodded, a thin smile curling up her lips. the boy cupped the children’s heads in his hands and promised them tonight, they’ll hear the tale of a young boy with a sunburst tattoo; the boy who became a blade; the boy who died and came back to life. and they’ll hear the tale of the girl with hair as white as apple blossom and cheeks just as pink; the girl who became a saint; the girl who the sun adored.


End file.
